Drake’s son and other confessions in Scorpion
The rapper’s new album offers a side of artist we have never seen before
Drake often boasts about his chart successes and wallows in heartaches, but on his latest album, Scorpion, the Toronto superstar has delivered a confessional the likes of which we’ve never heard from him before.
The rapper and singer unleashed an explosive 25-track album on streaming music services on Friday which appeared to confirm that he secretly fathered his first child who he’s “only met one time,” putting to rest a rumour that’s been circulating on gossip websites.
The rumour first surfaced when Virginia rapper Pusha-T released the track “The Story of Adidon,” shared with a Blackface photo of the Canadian rapper, and charged him with being a “deadbeat” father.
Scorpion also offers some humbling observations on how social media is eating away at Drake’s own life and the people around him.
While it’s a digital-only release at this point, Scorpion is being presented as a double album that’s divided into two parts, one half rap songs and the other R&B tracks.
But what becomes especially clear on both sides is that the 31-year-old artist — who has often referred to himself as “the boy” — is swiftly being shepherded into manhood and the responsibilities that come with it.
Scorpion, which clocks in at nearly 90 minutes, features an array of guest appearances by marquee rappers such as Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj and Future.
It’s also packed with classic music samples from Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson and Lauryn Hill.
Here’s are some of the most notable elements of the album: His son Drake looks to be committing to fatherhood as he comes clean on speculation that he was keeping a secret child away from the public spotlight. Track four, “Emotionless,” is when the rapper first confirms being a father.
“I wasn’t hiding my kid from the world. I was hiding the world from my kid,” he raps, noting that the superficiality of the world of social media would be toxic for his son’s upbringing and that’s why he never brought him up.
Perhaps the most vulnerable and revealing confession is in the closer, “March14,” where he confesses his regret at being a “single father” and “co-parent,” something that he has blasted his own divorced parents for on his albums: “Single father, I hate when I hear it / I used to challenge my parents on every album / Now I’m embarrassed to tell them I ended up as a co-parent / Always promised the family unit / I wanted it to be different because I’ve been through it.”
Near the end of the song, Drake also hints at meeting his son for a second time: “They said in two weeks you’re supposed to come into town / Hopefully by the time you hear this me and your mother will have come around.” Social media The pressures of Instagram life might be wearing away at Drake’s patience these days.
In the editor’s notes of the album, Drake addresses the rumours swirling around social media, expressing that he’s conscious of what the world says about him: “DRAKE TOOK AN L. DRAKE THINKS HE’S JAMAICAN. DRAKE IS AN ACTOR,” it reads, followed by “YEAH YEAH WE KNOW.”
Though seemingly untouchable, rapping about his charttopping successes and being the best in the world, the album also sheds light on his own selfconsciousness.
Even though he’s known for frequently updating his Instagram Story with slices of his lavish lifestyle, the rapper confesses on “Can’t Take a Joke” that nasty posts from anonymous strangers eat away at him (“My comment section killin’ me. I swear I get so passionate, y’all do not know the half of it”).
He revisits the soul-crushing side of social media on “Emotionless” when he recalls several women he knows who live through the lens of their phone cameras trying to “post pictures for people at home.” Michael Jackson and Paul Anka Fans were baffled when it was confirmed the Ottawa-born crooner was in the studio with Drake earlier this year. It turns out the duo were putting a new spin on an unreleased Michael Jackson track Anka produced. “It Don’t Matter to Me” was reworked into Drake’s midtempo “Don’t Matter to Me,” a broken-hearted love song punctuated by Jackson’s unmistakable voice on the chorus. Canada Surprisingly few mentions of Drake’s Toronto hometown turn up in the lyrics on Scorpi- on, if any, but he does slip in a quick reference to the whales at Niagara Falls amusement park Marineland. Other than that, his Canadian roots are mostly referenced through mentions of the United States. He talks about bringing his closest friends stateside when he works and makes a cryptic reference on “Sandra’s Rose” to having “some real demons across the border fence.” Bella Hadid In 2017, it was rumoured that Drake and Bella Hadid were secretly dating, after the supermodel’s relationship with fellow Canadian artist The Weeknd ended.
In the track “Sandra’s Roses,” Drake dives straight into it, “My house is full of supermodels like Mohammed Hadid,” referring to her father. On “Finesse,” he also hints at their possible romance: “Should I do New York? I can’t decide / Fashion week is more your thing than mine / You stay on my mind / You and your sister too hot to handle,” which many believe is a reference to Bella’s sister, Gigi Hadid.
“I wasn’t hiding my kid from the world. I was hiding the world from my kid.” DRAKE IN “EMOTIONLESS”